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Thursday, October 20, 2005

PLAME WATCH A lot of balls in the air tonight.

But the most notable news comes in a story by Murray Waas, who fills a gaping hole in the Plame narrative's Judith Miller sub-plot: It took the prodding of the special prosecutor for Judith Miller to "remember" her June 23 meeting with Lewis Libby, and to come clean about it:

New York Times reporter Judith Miller told the federal grand jury in the CIA leak case that she might have met with I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby on June 23, 2003 only after prosecutors showed her Secret Service logs that indicated she and Libby had indeed met that day in the Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House, according to attorneys familiar with her testimony.

When a prosecutor first questioned Miller during her initial grand jury appearance on September 30, 2005 sources said, she did not bring up the June 23 meeting...Pressed by prosecutors who then brought up the specific date of the meeting, Miller testified that she still could not recall the June meeting...When a prosecutor presented Miller with copies of the White House-complex visitation logs, she said such a meeting was possible.

Shortly after her September 30 testimony, Miller discovered her notes from the June 23 meeting, and returned on October 12 for a second round of grand jury testimony. In this second appearance, Miller recounted details from her June 23 meeting with Libby, with the assistance of her notes.

Bob Bennett, an attorney for Miller, confirmed in an interview that Miller's October 12 testimony "corrected" her earlier statements to the grand jury regarding the June 23 meeting...Bennett said that Miller's testimony is now "correct, complete, and accurate." (Italics added.)

Wouldn't be surprised if Executive Editor Bill Keller wanted to stay put in China for a few more days.

What's undoubtedly true...is that Waas's story flushes the last fecal traces of Miller's professional reputation straight down the toilet. Going to prison to protect a confidential source is one thing, committing perjury (or something damned close to it) in an effort to conceal criminal misconduct by a senior White House official is something else entirely. Judy's just lucky Fitzgerald needs her as a witness, otherwise she could look forward to a few more years of sleeping on thin mattresses and begging her fellow inmates to let her watch a few minutes of CNN.